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As wonderful as Atomz (Express Service) is, what are my alternatives when I want a comprehensive search facility on my site when I have >500 pages?

Are there other services like Atomz that will do a similar job on >500 pages for free or a modest fee? The next rung up the ladder from Atomz Express Service is US$10,000/year (or more)! I kid you not.

When I say 'comprehensive', the search facility I'd like is one that will index (in addition to 'easy' html pages) my dynamic (database-sourced) pages, AND other documents such as Word and PDF.

Does anyone have any experience with these scripts? Do they perform comprehensive searches on .html, .htm, dynamic, .doc, .pdf documents?

The core of my dilemma is this: if I include the Atomz Express search engine on a commercial site that (over time) grows to over 500 pages, where do I go when the site owner says to me "I notice the search engine is working very well these days..." ?

I'd say go with Atomz search for now. That way you'll get your site up on schedule, and you can research other options while your waiting for the site to fill up.

One of those options would be to use one of Google's remotely hosted search service. I haven't used them, but if they're as good as the regular web search, then they'd be hands down the best. I believe that AltaVista and some of the others have their own products and services as well. :-)